Corporate Counsel - Contracts

The Role

OKSI is seeking a hands-on Corporate Counsel - Contracts with a meaningful commercial-contracting foundation who wants to broaden their practice and grow through direct mentorship from the fractional General Counsel. You'll manage a recurring queue of NDAs/MNDAs and a steady flow of routine-to-moderately complex commercial and government-facing agreements and other day-to-day legal matters, applying OKSI's templates, playbooks, fallback positions, and risk tolerances with practical judgment and GC review as needed - and escalating novel, strategic, or unusually complex matters with a recommended position. This role reports administratively to the Manager, Regulatory Compliance and Contracts, works under the legal direction of the fractional General Counsel, and collaborates closely with the Contracts Administrator and teams across compliance, program management, procurement, finance, HR, engineering, and BD.

What You'll Do

· Draft, review, revise, and negotiate customer, vendor, and supplier agreements, services and consulting agreements, teaming agreements, subcontracts, licensing agreements, SOWs, and amendments.

· Serve as the primary legal point of contact for NDAs/MNDAs - manage matters from intake through signature using approved forms and fallback positions.

· Manage assigned legal matters from intake through resolution, including reviewing and negotiating counterparty paper, reading the negotiation history, preserving accepted positions, and developing practical positions and fallbacks; maintain and improve templates, fallback language, and playbooks.

· Provide day-to-day legal support on routine corporate governance, employment questions, IP and data rights, data privacy, vendor disputes, internal policy, and proposal review.

· Identify terms outside OKSI's standard positions and escalate novel, strategic, or unusually complex matters to the fractional General Counsel with a clear explanation of the issue and a recommended position.

· Deliver accurate redlines and concise recommendations, checking the final text and comments before delivery. Use approved AI and other tools thoughtfully while personally verifying and taking responsibility for the work.

· Review routine government contracts, subcontracts, and flow downs, handling ordinary contract issues and identifying matters that require specialized government-contract or compliance review.

Requirements

· J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school and active bar membership in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.

· Meaningful hands-on experience drafting, redlining, and negotiating commercial agreements, including substantial work on counterparty paper. Experience gained with supervising-attorney review can qualify.

· Demonstrated experience negotiating substantive private-party terms such as indemnity, limitation of liability, IP and licensing, confidentiality, warranties, termination, and dispute provisions.

· Strong contract drafting, legal research, analytical, and issue-spotting skills.

· Pragmatic, business-oriented judgment; ability to distinguish material risks from drafting preferences and explain legal risk, options, and recommendations in plain English.

· Ability to manage a high volume of agreements and competing priorities, follow matters through resolution, and take increasing responsibility with GC guidance.

· Strong attention to detail and sound judgment on when to decide, ask, or escalate.

· Initiative in resolving open issues, willingness to learn unfamiliar work, and ability to apply specific feedback to subsequent assignments.

· Typically, 3-7 years of relevant legal experience (in-house or law firm), with meaningful hands-on commercial contracts or transactional experience. The substance of the work and fit for the role matter more than a fixed number of years.

Preferred Qualifications

· In-house experience, particularly at a small/mid-size, growth-stage, or engineering-driven company.

· Experience with federal government contracts, subcontracts, FAR/DFARS, or the defense industry.

· Familiarity with IP and data rights, SBIR/STTR, CUI, cybersecurity, or export-related terms.

· Experience with contract lifecycle management, e-signature, or legal ops tools.

Compensation and Benefits

· Salary range: $130,000-$200,000 annually.

· Medical, dental, and vision coverage fully paid by the employer for employees.

· Three weeks of vacation to start.

· Automatic company contribution to 401K - 5% of earned wages (no matching required).

· Educational assistance and professional development opportunities.

Additional Requirements

You must have, or be eligible to obtain and maintain, a U.S. Department of Defense Secret security clearance. Obtaining and maintaining the required clearance is a condition of employment in this position; anyone unable to do so is ineligible for the role. The clearance process includes U.S. Government background investigation and vetting to determine eligibility for access to classified information.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We are an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by law. We provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in the application and hiring process.

This employer participates in E-Verify.